Industry Chronicle

Laura Egloff’s love for her brand Velveteen is making her foray into retail a real option with new ideas.

By Marianne M. Madge

Esthetics and experience. Those two concepts offer a summation of designer and entrepreneur Laura Egloff’s pursuits, vision, and success. The southern California-born business maven founded children’s clothing brand Velveteen in 2013, and with a combination of market intuition and adventurous decision-making is concurrently establishing a viable e-commerce business and an engaging retail concept.

“As a small brand in particular, our main role is to produce and promote beautiful quality clothing — if we’re not selling that clothing we don’t exist,” says Egloff, who opened Velveteen’s first store in February 2018 in the renowned retail destination Lee Garden Two in Hong Kong, the city in which she resides with her husband and two young children. Retail, she continues, is “my touch point with our end consumer. I talk with them, it’s more tangible. They’re buying into a universe I’ve been able to create. There’s an equal focus on both (brand and retail).”

That focus has Egloff devoting 2019 to expanding both the brand’s offering and the retail business. After experimenting with a selection of boy’s merchandise last year, Velveteen will introduce a complete and comprehensive boys line this season to complement the girl’s line, which will likewise broaden. Perceiving a void in a boys market presenting little selection other than “sports” wear or “tuxedos,” Egloff determined to create a boys offering that “allows them to dress like their Dads.” The offering in 2019 will likewise expand to include more knitwear, she adds.